Count Your Sins
by Shadow of a Failure
Summary: The HMS Jaeger is a ship on her first tour throughout the galaxy. The Federation and Rebels have both fallen, giving birth to new factions; The Carstavos and the Vastus. The galaxy deemed "Trinity" is in a transitional period, with two factions fighting for power. It is between the fall of the last great empire, and the rise of a new one. This is the story of the Jaeger & her crew.


**Trinity**

It is a time of darkness and despair. It is a time between the fall of the last empire, and the rise of the next. Great creators are born, making what some people call art, but others call gruesome. There are two main factions, the Carstavo, and the Vastus. They are both pushing back and forth for control of the galaxy, however, a new threat has appeared; The Awoken. They believe the only way into the afterlife is through death, and they terrorize planets and space stations in the galaxy. To make it worse, there is a new drug known as "Blood" to commoners, and it has found it's way into the slums of nearly every planet. The galaxy is poor, and few people can barely afford food. This, my friends, is our galaxy; Trinity.

**Chapter 1: Baptism by Fire**

"Cap'n, the ship is gonna tear itself apart!" exclaimed a crew hand, as an explosion shook the HMS Jaeger, a newly constructed ship for the Carstavo, full of recruits barely off the simulators.

"I know, I know! Get me Matt!" Gerard, the captain of the Jaeger shouted in reply. Gerard was a black haired white kid, barely twenty-three. He had been classed as a captain, and was quickly given his own ship after the sims. That ship was the Jaeger.

The crew hand patched him into Matt's comms.

"Matt, sit-rep, now!" roared Matt's radio, with the voice of Gerard blasting through.

"Fires on six levels, engines are dead, the med bay is full, and the fire is approaching our oxygen systems sir, we have fire crews on three, four, and six, sir." Matt replied, running down a hall, swarming with other crew members. Matt was a tall, blonde kid. He was born and raised on one of the many space stations before the war. His parents were killed in a fire caused by two warring armies.

"Oh, and our god damn lasers are out sir!" Andy, the weapons engineer, shouted through his radio, interrupting both of them as he flipped switches and smashed buttons attempting to get the lasers back online. Andy was like a brother to Matt, they were there for each other, and joined the Carstavo together.

"Blast! Get fire crews to oxygen asap, and get those repair bots on the laser cannons!" Gerard ordered, pointing to a woman on her way out, then the engineer on the bridge with him.

The Jaeger was under attack, and badly damaged. They attempted to take on a Mantis ship. The Mantis were a heavily armed, mostly nomadic warrior race. They crawled on four legs, rising to a height of eight feet, towering over most. Their front set of feet ended in sharp bone-like spikes, often used to impale their sorry victims.

The Jaeger was now fleeing, and the Mantis ship was in pursuit, their weapons were still charging, however, giving the Jaeger a chance to escape before the next volley.

Miriam, meanwhile, was operating on wounded as fast as she could in the med-bay, taking out shrapnel, and god knows what else from the bodies of the crew. The other doctors were out, bringing wounded back in. However, they were bringing back more bodies than live people, and Miriam still couldn't keep up. Miriam was five-foot eight and had brown hair, she was born and raised on New Eden, a planet known for it's doctors that come out of it.

Matt was on his way to the FTL drive where Mae and Jake were stationed, who were at the moment desperately charging it. The FTL drive was vital to any ship, allowing faster than light travel. On his way through the Grey floored, white walled hallways, Matt passed the armory, only to find flickering lights and the shadow of something he only wished to meet in his worst nightmares... a Mantis. It noticed him in the perfectly lit hallway, and began staggering towards him out of the darkness. Matt's eyes widened, and it was about to be upon him when he heard something... He heard the 'Choo' of a Laser Rifle, and the Mantis fell, revealing Segeant Emma DeWitt, the trainer and commander of the small platoon of soldiers stationed on the Jaeger. She held the weapon up, resting the stock on her waist.

"And stay down you fucking scumbag." she taunted, stepping over it's body, an orange glow illuminating from the hole in it's chest.

Matt, shocked, starred at the dead Mantis.

"You're welcome rookie, now get the hell where you need to go. Oh, and take this." DeWitt calmly commanded, throwing him an EM1-Headhunter laser rifle. Emma was tall, not as tall as most of her men however, she was five ten, and her semi-long brown hair was often pulled as a joke by the crew.

Matt ran off down the hallway, processing what had just happened on his way to the FTL room, while Emma spit on the body of the mantis, rubbing it in with her boot.

Meanwhile, Gerard was vigorously commanding the crew on the bridge, constantly asking for sit-reps, and trying his best to get the engines and weapons back online. The ship was basically dead in the water, the engines were offline, the entire first floor of the ship engulfed in flame, and the weapons still offline. For the first time in Gerard's life, he was scared.

The repair bots on the exterior of the ship swarmed to the laser cannons as Gerard ordered, and quickly got to work forming themselves into the materiel needed to plug the holes in the cannons, weather it be into metal or plastic, the micro-repair bots fixed it.

Now, the Mantis ship was closing in, slowly however, for they had been damaged in the initial fight as well. Their weapons were nearly charged when they heard the buzz of a teleportation device, the captain turned only to find Emma DeWitt and three of her men, laser rifles at the ready. The soldiers made quick work of the small crew on the bridge when a squad of mantis soldiers entered the room, quickly pinning one man down, and impaling him, however, another one of Emma's men, Arron shot the Mantis off, killing it instantly, while Emma and her two other remaining men formed a defensive circle. The green, disgusting Mantis creatures closed in when the small squad opened fire, killing two of the five remaining mantis, however, one of the abominations stabbed the rifle out of Arron's hands. Arron quickly drew his knife, stabbing the Mantis in the neck, revealing green semi-acidic blood, which quickly dissolved the knife, however, the damage was done, and the Mantis fell to the side, onto one of the many control panels on the bridge, destroying it.

Another one of Emma's men was hit with a ball of spit from a Mantis who had been staying back. He began trying to get it off his face, when another Mantis went in for the kill. Emma turned and shot it, while drawing her pistol to fend off the last Mantis, which was charging towards her, tragically she missed with her pistol, but destroyed the other Mantis with her rifle. Arron then, seeing her in danger ran towards the Mantis charging Emma, tackling it, the two then engaged in hand on hand combat, which was never before seen between a human and Mantis. Arron punched it across the face, which only angered it, it opened it's mouth, ready to shoot a ball of spit when Emma knelt down, sticking a laser pistol in it's mouth and pulling the trigger. The last mantis, seeing this, charged, hoping to take out Arron again, but he ducked under it, sending it flying into the glass of the bridge, cracking it. The two, out of breath, stared each other in the eyes, and began to ran towards the door. A tiny piece of glass broke, and the two barely make it out of the door, quickly pressing the giant red button labeled "Airlock" on the door. They take a breath, but soon hear the stomping of another Mantis squad.

"Jensen, Jensen do you copy?" Emma asks over her radio embedded in her armor on her forearm, and they hear the stomping getting faster.

"I copy Sergeant, what's the situation?" Jensen, the ship's teleportation officer replies.

"I need a teleportation now, for two!" She exclaims as the first Mantis turns the corner, about twenty feet away, and it rushes down the red hallway.

"Locking on to your signal now, give me just a second!" He exclaims

"I don't have a god damn second, I need a teleportation now!" She shouts, dodging an incoming Mantis spike.

Arron kicks the Mantis attacking Emma in the stomach, knocking it back, it turns it's attention towards him, and pins him against the wall. One of it's spikes impales his shoulder, and Arron let's out a shriek of pain. The Mantis raises it's other leg, about to strike when Arron closes his eyes, awaiting imminent death. It never comes, instead, they hear the Russian accent of Jensen "Jesus, are you... are you okay?!" He shouts, running over to the two of them.

Emma quickly grabs Arron as he begins to fall over. Jensen helps catch him, and they rush him to the med-bay. It's crowded, and there's a line out the door.

"Coming through people, coming through!" Emma says, shoving people past.

The trio eventually makes it to the med-bay and Miriam finds a place on the ground for Arron until a bed is available. She quickly injects him with morphine, and Arron disappears into a cloud of unconsciousness. Miriam begins to operate on him when Emma drags Jensen out, who was staring at the disgusting wounds of some of the people being operated on by several doctors now.

Meanwhile, Gerard is still panicking when he gets word the Mantis ship has gone off course, and that they are out of range of any Mantis weapons. This allows him to take a short sigh of relief when he hears the loudspeaker roar out; "Intruders detected. Eight alien life-forms on board. Species: Mantis."

"Get Emma and all her men down there asap!" He exclaims, pointing to the comm officer.

Emma begins to run back to the barracks when she hears the announcement. She enters, to find the rest of her squad fully loaded out and ready. She nods, and they get off their bunks and run after her.

"Where are the Mantis, sir?" Emma asks, jogging down the hallway, her men following.

"They're in the engine room, Sergeant." Gerard replies, quickly signing off afterward in order to assign tasks to other crew members.

"Crap... Men! Hold up! They're in the engine room." she commands, and points to the door down the hallway labeled "Engines".

She begins using hand gestures to command the soldiers. She has three men veer to the right in order to flank them, while two others jump into the vents, and her with the remaining four men close in on the door. They wait thirty seconds in order for the other men to get into position, once those seconds are over, she signals her men one last time, a fist in the air. Emma then takes a flash-bang off her belt and opens the door, throwing it in. They hear the 'bang' and rush in. The eight Mantis are there, completely surrounded, dazed, and confused. They kick the Mantis down, and step on them to keep them down, their rifles aimed at their heads.

"Well done. That was easier then expected." Emma tells her men, then kneeling down next to a mantis on the floor, still dazed.

"Look," she says to it. "I don't know why you're here, who you are, or even what you plan to do, but know this;" she pauses. "I don't care." She then stands up, and begins to leave, but just before she exits the door, she makes a gun with her fingers, and shoots it. The men understand, and instantly execute the mantis.

Emma reports to the bridge, while her men get back to the barracks.

"We're done here." She says, entering the bridge, staring at the back of the chair where the captain sits in the center of the room.

The chair turns.

"The threat is neutralized?" Gerard asks.

The bridge becomes dead silent, and people stop in their tracks at this.

"The threat is dead." She replies, throwing her rifle down, exiting.

The bridge and her crew, still dead silent, stare at one another.

"We won..." Gerard whispers, just loud enough however for everyone to hear it in the silence.

Suddenly, an applause roars out, the crew begin hugging one another, high-fiving even. The HMS Jaeger's first kill. Over the course of the next few hours, they evacuate all the crew out of dangerous areas, and then drain all of the ship, except the top floor, of oxygen, putting out the fires, and killing nobody. They then get to repairs, and as soon as she can fly, the Jaeger scraps the Mantis ship of all it's weapons and worth, and jumps to the next repair station, where they get fixed up.


End file.
